Through the 2019 Inspire Challenge project, Gamifying weather forecasting: “Let it rain” campaign, farmers can take to their mobile phones to predict what day the rainy season will start.

Climate change is taking a toll across east Africa, with erratic weather hitting Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia. “One of the key issues is that they never know when the rains are coming and, as a result, they will plant too early or harvest too late,” says Project coordinator Sophie Rottmann.

“The idea of gamifying the weather is to attract farmers with the aim of giving them access to information to improve their crop yields and manage their farms more efficiently,” explains Kevin Gitau, Program Manager at iShamba, an online farmers’ information service that offers advice on everything from pests to plants.